It will be business as usual at the L.A. County Fairgrounds in Pomona today when the National Hot Rod Assn. opens its 2008 season with the annual Winternationals, which run through Sunday. Engines will roar, fat tires will lay down bands of rubber and cars will speed down the drag strip at upward of 300 mph.
Off the track, however, the pro drag racing circuit hit an unexpected speed bump Jan. 31 when a pending $121-million deal that had been pitched as integral to the future of both professional drag racing and its amateur counterpart fell apart.
"I felt like someone punched me in the stomach," NHRA driver Ron Capps said shortly after shareholders of HD Partners Acquisition Corp. rejected the deal. HD Partners executives did not comment on the failed deal. The Santa Monica company would have paid $121 million for NHRA's Glendora headquarters building, four race tracks and its Powerade Drag Racing Series. NHRA planned to use the money to finance its popular amateur racing program, and HD Partners hoped to run the Powerade series as a for-profit business.
Some drag racing industry insiders believe that the deal fell apart because of the troubled financial markets. Others suspect that savvy investors were leery of investing in a lesser-known racing circuit that lagged far behind the popular NASCAR series.
"I think the real bean counters on Wall Street looked at [HD Partners] and said, 'What are you thinking?' " said Jeff Burk, publisher of DragRacingOnline.com. "I think they started to wonder, 'Where's the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?' "
Longtime drivers and team owners were stunned last May when NHRA announced plans to sell most of its assets, including its pro racing circuit. "In years past, the NHRA said that selling anything was pretty much a closed issue," said longtime racer and team owner Don Prudhomme. "Then, lo and behold, someone figured out how to sell it."
Immediately after the sale fell apart, NHRA President Tom Compton said that the season would go on as planned on the nation's drag strips. But drivers, owners and crew chiefs in the tight-knit drag-racing community already are speculating about a possible bid by drag strip owner Bruton Smith.
Within hours of the HD Partners vote, Smith was on record as saying: "I always consider myself to be in a buying mood, and the NHRA is certainly an attractive property, but right now my focus is on building the world's premiere drag racing facility in Charlotte."
